Agricultural and industrial tractors normally have rearmounted three-point hitches which contain at least two coupler latch mechanisms. One example of such a coupler latch mechanism and its method of operation, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,544,133, issued to Lemmon et al in 1970. With this type of coupler latch, the operator first dismounts from his tractor and manually opens the bottom two latches on the three-point hitch. He then climbs back into the tractor cab and backs the tractor up to an attachable implement such that the hitch pins on the implement engage in the hooks on the three-point hitch. The operator again dismounts from the tractor and manually closes the latches, making sure the hitch pins are fully inserted into the hooks. After closing the latches, the operator must again climb back into the tractor cab.
It is desirous to provide a coupler latch which would self-open for hook-up with the hitch pins on an implement and remain open after hook-up to force the operator to examine and manually close the latches. For safety purposes, it is not advantageous to provide a self-closing feature. Such a coupler latch would reduce the number of times the operator would have to climb into and out of the tractor cab for each hook-up.